Community service has been requested for the organiser of BDSM parties in Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Urals.

The prosecution has requested that Stanislav Slovikovsky, organiser of BDSM parties in Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Urals, be sentenced to 220 hours of community service on charges of offending the feelings of believers (Part 1, Article 148 of the Russian Criminal Code). This was reported by a correspondent from Mediazona in the courtroom.

The case was launched over three photographs posted in the channel of the project “Ark”, which organised BDSM events. Investigators claimed these images depicted religious symbols: a wreath of twigs on a woman’s head was interpreted as a crown of thorns, and construction beams shaped like an X were taken to be an Orthodox cross. Slovikovsky was also accused over a photo showing people holding signs with the names of sins.

The defendant does not admit guilt. He says he did not regard the symbols as religious and had no intention of offending believers’ feelings. “There is not a single victim whose feelings were hurt before the case was launched,” Mediazona quotes from a written statement Slovikovsky provided to journalists before the hearing.

The criminal case first came to light in May 2024. Slovikovsky was detained after a night-time raid on a party held at the Volna recreation base. No pre-trial restrictions were imposed on him.